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5 Stats That Explained the World This Week

By IAN BREMMER

April 13, 2014

The right statistic is often worth a thousand words—and sometimes much more than that. These five weekly data points, put together by Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the risk consultancy Eurasia Group, provide a glimpse into global trends, political dangers and international power dynamics. Some are counterintuitive facts. Others are small stats that tell a big story. This week, Ian looks at figures like Russian capital outflows and the movement of Syrian refugees—and what they mean for everybody else.

In the first quarter of this year, more than $50 billion in capital left Russia. That is the biggest outflow since the fourth quarter of 2008, when the financial crisis struck. Initially, Russian officials had estimated $25 billion in outflows—for the entire year. They have since adjusted their estimate to $100 billion. But will even that figure hold?

A quarter of the Greek economy has been destroyed in the European debt crisis, and.Greece’s debt load has worsened over the last few years. Yet, despite these troubling signs, on Thursday, Greece went through with its first long-term debt sale since its international bailout in 2010 … and the sale was met with overwhelmingly positive investor demand. According to the government, Greece raised 3 billion euros on a five-year bond offering that attracted more than 20 billion euros in orders, at a relatively low interest rate of 4.75%.

For years, Americans have been worried about the prospect of Chinese automakers building a large footprint in the United States and competing with local car companies. But the tables have turned. Today, calls for protectionism are more likely to come from Chinese automakers facing American competition in China. Ford Motor has almost doubled its Chinese market share over the last two years to 4.5 percent, and it plans to double production over the coming year. In March, for the first time in its history—and largely thanks to the voracious Chinese market—Ford sold more than 100,000 cars and light trucks in a single month.

Ford's China Sales (in wholesale units)

Since the beginning of 2012, salaries for most Russian military personnel have tripled. There has also been a sustained surge in military spending, which is expected to continue. Russia’s military budget—at $80 billion today—is projected to reach $100 billion in 2016.

According to the United Nations, the number of registered Syrian war refugees in Lebanon has passed the one million mark. Half of these refugees are under 18 years old. Lebanon has a higher concentration of refugees as a percentage of its population than any other country in the world: the country now has roughly one Syrian for every three Lebanese.